Recent headlines warn that Coronal Mass Ejections, better known as Solar Flares, could trigger a high-tech Armageddon, disabling power and communication on a global scale, for months. Today we talk with Boulder scientists Dan Baker, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, and Doug Biesecker, National Space Weather Prediction Center, about the risks from Solar Flares, what to worry about, and what is being done to protect us.

In today’s science show, we also feature upcoming talks on Science.
* This Wednesday at 7 PM, How on Earth’s Joel Parker will talk about Chasing Comets: The Rosetta Mission, at the Denver Science Museum.
* This Friday at 7:30, Conservative Christian and Prominent Atmospheric Scientist, Katharine Hayhoe, will talk about,“Climate Change with Mind & Heart,” at Boulder’s Chautauqua Auditorium.

We talk with Joel Parker about his Denver Science Museum presentation. Joel is a project leader for one of the scientific instruments on board the Rosetta space mission. We also discuss new findings about how improving the health of the human digestive tract, with the use of beneficial microbes, might improve mood disorders, including reducing the anxiety that’s common with autism.

CU-Boulder Electrical Engineering Emeritus Professor Frank Barnes is the past president of the BioElectroMagnetics Society. He recently chaired a National Research Council panel on research priorities related to the potential health effects of exposure to radio frequency energy from the use of wireless technology, such as cell phones. As a scientist, Frank Barnes recently talked with a citizen activist, Katie Singer, about her new book, An Electronic Silent Spring. This is an extended version of the interview we broadcast on June 3rd 2014. — Shelley Schlender

I’m Shelley Schlender for How on Earth. Here’s an extended version of an interview about how Native Americans came to be. It’s about a CU-Boulder study that appeared in Science Magazine in February 2014, and promptly made headlines around the world. The study involves top-notch detective work that shows how, almost 30,000 years ago, a major Ice Age trapped Asian explorers on a land bridge between Asia and Alaska for 10 THOUSAND years. Back then, the “Beringia” (bare-IN-gee-ah) land bridge was 30 miles long and 600 miles wide. Glaciers had buried Northern America, but Beringia was just warm enough, the trapped explorers survived and thrived. They stayed in that pit stop for so many thousands of years, it gave time for the inevitable mutations that can happen in DNA to be concentrated and become distributed throughout the entire Beringian community, which probably included a few thousand people. When the glaciers finally receded around 15,000 years ago, that DNA signature was with the small band of “Beringians” who then began settling in the Americas. Their settlements were successful. Their numbers grew over time to become the millions of people today who still carry “Beringia” in their DNA. Today, we call that distinct, Beringian DNA proof that someone’s ancestors were “Native Americans.”

Hospital Acquired Infections (8:00) When Americans go to the hospital, they don’t expect to leave with a brand new illness. But one out of every 20 receives a hidden time bomb during these visits — it’s a healthcare associated infection. How on Earth’s Shelley Schlender visits Longmont United Hospital to see how ICU staff reduce infection risks. If you want to compare how your hospital or clinic compares with the nation, and other Colorado hospitals, when it comes to infections, here are Colorado’s Latest Infection Rate Reports

Fireproofing Mountain Homes (starts at 3:20) We discuss a new study from the Rocky Mountain Research Station in Missoula, Montana. It warns that thinning forests may help prevent property damage from the “typical” wildfires, fire suppression can’t stand up against the 3% of fires that burn super-hot and spread super fast. What’s more, the Missoula study warns that superhot wildfires are just the ones that burn the most homes. The researchers conclude that the main responsibility for preventing home destruction from wildfires, lies with homeowners rather than public land managers. They say that homeowners should do more to design homes that stand up to a super wildfire. To find out ways to to that, we talk with Disaster Safety Senior Scientist Steve Quarles, who is with an insurance industry funded fire prevention think tank. Quarles says that small changes in home building can reduce the chance that tiny, glowing embers blowing in the wind, will get in under the eaves and turn into a raging fire that burns down a house.

Winter Solstice (starts at 13:44) As a chart of sunrise and sunset makes clear, although the shortest day of the year is at the winter solstice, the latest sunrise occurs *after* the solstice and the earliest sunset occurs *before* the solstice… The sunset is going to get later faster and faster now, while the sunset time is going to also get later until after the solstice, then start creeping earlier. What’s going on here? How on Earth’s Jim Pullen explains.

THE SPORTS GENE: Running has become a great elite sport, thanks in part to the amazing sprinters from Jamaica and the long distance runners from the African equator. How much is all that running talent nature, and what’s the power of nurture? In his book, The Sports Gene, David Epstein says it’s definitely both.

THESE SHINING LIVES: Now playing at CU Boulder, is a story about one of the most stunning technologies to ever harm U-S workers. It involves a technique from the early 1900s that made it possible for the hands of watches to glow in the dark. The “Glow” came from radium-laced paint, which killed many of the young women who were told to lick their paint brushes to make sure that the dials were painted properly. The new play is titled, “These Shining Lives.” and it’s fitting that it will open at CU just 10 miles from the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant, where controversy still rages over radioactive contamination. Here to tell us more is the director of “These Shining Lives,” Elizabeth Dowd.

In this pledge drive show for KGNU, we feature an interview with David Epstein, author of The Sports Gene. Through his new book, Epstein looks straight at a debate that’s as old as physical competition. Are stars like Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, and Serena Williams genetic freaks put on Earth to be top athletes? Or are they simply normal people who overcame their biological limits through sheer force of will and obsessive training? This book tackles the nature vs. nurture debate and traces how far science has come in solving this great riddle.

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